Water Under the Bridge: Nov. 29, 2017

The National Park Service’s call for a freeze on new designations of national heritage areas has caused a stir nationally.

But Cyndi Mudge, director of Destination: The Pacific, was quick to reassure residents this morning that the potential policy change at national level won’t affect efforts to create a Columbia-Pacific National Heritage Area.

“It has been such a good thing, they just want a formal program for designation,” she said.

Mudge said her organization is already following the program recommendations from the National Park Service and heritage area organizers.

After approving just two dozen heritage areas since the early 1980s, Congress adopted 10 last year. The House signed off on six more last month, and the wait list is growing.

With Jon Englund’s controversial riverfront condominium project in the works on his property between 15th and 16th streets in Astoria, another condo going up at the foot of Sixth Street and others waiting in the wings, some people fear a solid wall of buildings will line the Columbia River.

Others hail new development on the waterfront as an economic boon for the city as fish processing plants relocate to the Port of Astoria.

With two such opposite viewpoints emerging, city leaders are undertaking a community visioning process in the hope of forging a consensus on how to move forward.

The Ford Foundation is considering Astoria as a potential site for testing a new land use planning computer program. It includes a social component that focuses on people and their reactions to change as much as on building, open space, transportation and other components of what planners refer to as the “built environment.”

Called HDOD for Human Development Overlay District, it uses GIS (Geographic Information System) to create a three-dimensional computer model, where land use planning strategies can be implemented virtually and their effects on a city or neighborhood and its inhabitants tracked in real time.

For the cities chosen to try it out, the program comes with a Ford Foundation grant of $100,000 to $150,000.

50 years ago — 1967

The state highway commission is examining the new Oregon beach law to determine whether the site of a proposed 160-home development at Seaside belongs to the public.

The 22-acre tract was sold to Sunset Cove Corp. by the city of Seaside for $10,500. A portion of the tract was purchased from private interests. The firm, headed by William Holmstrom of Gearhart and Palmerton Development Corp. of Seattle plans to develop Pacific Riviera homesites. Bulldozers and carryalls are at the site moving sand.

The largest “set” of razor clams ever recorded by Oregon fish commission biologists occurred on the Clatsop beaches this year. Darrell Demory of the agency’s Astoria research laboratory staff said sample screening of beach sands from Seaside north showed an average of 100 small seed clams for each square yard surveyed.

The number of Russian fishing vessels off the Oregon-Washington coast was reduced by half last week, according to the U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. Only five Soviet craft were seen off Washington. Fourteen Japanese fishing boats were counted in the area.

After learning Tuesday that one of his deputy highway engineers was investigating the million-dollar housing project proposed near the mouth of the Necanicum River in Seaside, Oregon highway engineer Forest Cooper stepped in and said the new beach law does not apply to the property.

75 years ago — 1942

State selective service officials of both Oregon and Washington will give favorable consideration to proposals for deferment of fishermen and key cannery employees, they informed James Cellars, who was authorized by packers and the union to consult with the officials of the two states.

Summarizing the results of his conferences, Cellars stated that

“1. There is an evident willingness on the part of both state offices to cooperate to the fullest extent possible in maintaining manpower in the Oregon and Washington commercial fisheries.

“2. The industry and union should take every possible step to hasten the filing of deferment applications for every fisherman and key cannery worker.”

The Astoria headquarters for mileage rationing was swamped today with last-minute efforts to obtain supplemental gasoline rationing by truck and commercial vehicle operators on the eve of national mileage rationing Dec. 1.

Many of the commercial vehicle operators had not received their necessary certificates of war necessity, which are prerequisites to a supplemental ration issued from the local office. They were being issued temporary 30-day supplemental rations, however, and the Clatsop County central rationing board was working hard to stay ahead of the work.